Pine 6

"Pine 6" extends Manami Ito's middle run of Pine prints, in which her drypoint technique reaches a settled rhythm. The image likely depicts a mature pine with the trained branches of a garden specimen, perhaps a kuromatsu (black pine) or aka-matsu (red pine) of the sort found in temple precincts and stroll gardens. The drypoint medium captures both the dry scaliness of pine bark and the soft mass of needle clusters: the burr-rich line provides the velvety dark passages, while sparser hatching produces the half-tones that describe weathered limbs and shaded interior foliage. Editions in drypoint are by necessity short — the burr wears under repeated press pressure — so each impression carries slight variations in inking. The series exemplifies the patient observational drawing Ito has built her career upon, which her appointment as Assistant Professor at Hiroshima City University now allows her to pass on.